Weekend Reflections - All Attitude

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My granddaughter letting us know exactly how she feels about something. You can see mom's reflection in her sunglasses.

Reflections by other photographers at Weekend Reflections.

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Glass Beach - Kauai

A friend told us about an interesting place that isn't in most of the tour guides. We pulled over on the way there and I took this pic.

I told you this place was lush. What isn't beach is jungle.

We got off the highway and took a little dirt road down to the beach below this industrial area.  I know, it does seem odd to find this in the middle of paradise, but the tourists need gas! this is where they store it. We actually parked on the beach just below that tank on the right.

Here's the same beach a bit closer. This was obviously NOT a tourist area. Like I said above, we parked right on the beach and we were the only people there. You see that sand? Guess what? It's not sand!

See? Yeah, there's a little bit of sand, but even most of the tiny pieces are glass. Back in the day, this place was used as the island dump for about 100 years. Most of the big stuff has apparently been removed.  Erosion has taken care of the rest and all that remains is smoothed pieces of glass and metal.

Here is a random handful that I scooped up.

I wanted to see how deep it went, so I scooped out a trench about 10 inches deep. It was still almost all glass.

Here's my wife looking for bigger pieces as a wave recedes. Red sea glass is worth money, the rest not so much. 

In the rocks there were some items that nature was still working on. This is an engine block.

A very large crankshaft

That has nothing to do with the above, I just liked it.

My next post will be about a very old and abandoned Japanese cemetery we found.  Yep, the Japanese were some of the first people to settle on Kauai.

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Spouting Horn - Kauai

On day two we drove down this nice little road

I had to pull over when I saw this little guy hitch hiking

I also saw some idiots. Note the sitting water on those rocks. It got there because there were big waves breaking on them. I was wondering if we were going to witness something tragic, or at least newsworthy.

Here is the famous spouting horn...meh! As usual I'm distracted from the task at hand. In this instance, the distraction is the idiots standing to left of the "spout." People have been swept off of those rocks. That's why we're standing behind a fence. 

My lovely and wind blown wife.

Pretty clearly a volcanic island

The only graffiti I saw on the island was on these tree leaves.  Pretty odd, yeah?

And of course the ubiquitous chickens...

I promise that I'll get to the "real" scenery soon...

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Weekend Reflections - At the lake

A momentary break from Kauai photos. I'll be back at 'em on Monday.

Weekend Reflections by other photographers at Newtown Area Photo.

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Birds we met in Kauai

Most of the birds you see in Kauai are not native. Where I live we are used to seeing crows, seagulls, hawks and sparrows.  Hawaii has no crows and very surprisingly (as a chain of islands), they have ZERO sea gulls. 

Red Crested Cardinal

We saw a lot of them, but this one and his mate, were always around our patio begging for food.

Juvenile Red Crested Cardinal

 The head and crest start out orange and turn red as they mature. We call this guy "Rusty." By the time we left he was landing on our legs and would eat out of our hands.  He was VERY cute!

Yellow-Masked Myna Bird

They were originally brought to Kauai as pets, but are now part of the landscape. This guy was one of about 10 we regularly saw around our patio. Like most Mynas, they are very good mimics and in captivity some of them can talk.

Zebra Dove

They are EVERYWHERE and always underfoot. Cute and friendly, they mate for life and always show up in pairs. They will also eat out of your hand.

Hawaiian Black Swan

Although, these aren't everywhere, when you do seen them, it's a treat. Their feathers are beautiful!

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"Roostie"

Two major hurricanes in the last twenty years resulted in a lot of loose poultry. Roosters, hens and chicks are EVERYWHERE! This friendly guy hung out under a chair on our patio. Whenever the urge hit him, he'd walk up to our screen door and crow. His signal to us, that he wanted a snack.

Group shot

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Now that I have your attention...

Does anybody know why I (and others) can't comment on all blog posts? I can comment on blogs with pop-up comment boxes and those that have the "everyone" box checked in their comment settings. Other blogs won't let me comment at all.  So, if some of you are wondering where the heck I am and why I haven't been commenting, that is the reason...

Something has changed. Some blogs that I could freely comment on before, now require me to fill out a name and URl box. Some of you may notice that there is no profile photo of me in my comments to you. So, I have no idea what's going on, but I'm not liking it.

Chuck (Apocalypse Now) your blog is a good example, no matter what I do, I can't comment.

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Fun and Games

"The premise of Alex Cavanuagh's latest blog fest is to list your three most favorite games and why. Board games, card games, RPG, video games, physical games - even mind games!

This is a bit of a tough one for me, so I'm going to "break" the rules a bit and try to name 3 of each category.

Video Games:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

3. Golden Eye 007

I liked many more of them, including the early classics like Pacman and others, but these three come to mind. I probably like them the most because they are very involved and take a long time to master.

Card Games:

1. Spades

2. Pinochle

3. Euchre

I know how to play most card games and I'm pretty good at many of them, but these three are my favorites because they involve bidding, trump suits, and take a long time to get really good at.

Board Games:

1. Chess

2. Meh!

3. Meh!

I've never liked board games all that much because I've never been able to stay focused on them for very long.  Chess involves a lot of thinking, but I can't stand it when the other person thinks for very long.  

This blog fest is being hosted by the awesome Alex Cavanaugh. If you wish to participate or just see the favorites of other folks, please hit the link!

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Kauai Kowabunga

The first time I went to Kauai, I did some scuba diving and surfing. This time, thirty years, two knee surgeries and various other orthopedic injuries later, I didn't do either.  However, the patio of the condo we rented was just yards from one of the best surf spots on the island.  So I watched and took photos instead. I took MANY pics of folks surfing, but I will only bore you with a few. (I promise there will be scenery pics very soon).

This guy was probably the best surfer we saw. He was great on big or small waves, but obviously he could handle pretty much anything.

Where I live, you don't see ANYONE surfing without a wetsuit on.

This guy was lucky enough to spend a few seconds of this ride "in the tube." The photo came out kind of blurry, so I didn't post it. Too bad...

There was even people surfing on stand-up paddle boards. This guy was pretty good at it.

Of course, I had to take a few pics in black and white, into the sun.  The kind of shot that most photography teachers would give you an "F" grade on (but I love anyway).

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Before I Get Started...

Before I start posting the good stuff from our trip to Kauai, I have some comments and questions.

Although we live in southern California, the only truly "major" airport is in Los Angeles. LAX is about 60 miles (and three traffic jams) from our house. Every time I have to go there, I'm reminded of how much of a zoo it is. They also have the surliest and most rude TSA employees I've seen. It's like they are prohibited from EVER cracking a smile. How about shoes? If you must take them off (which I understand,) why don't they at least carpet the floor? Also, how about giving you a place to sit down, to put them back on?

If Hawaiian Airlines is ever an option in your travels, you won't be sorry if you choose them. Well, you may be sorry if you are taking any luggage. A single suitcase will cost you $25. A second one is $30. I guess this is pretty much standard these days.

Okay, the airline is great, but why does airline food suck?  I guess that question can be expanded to "why does airline, airport and hospital food suck? So seriously, what the heck is this thing? They said it was a ham and egg sandwich! Yeah right! It looked like a souffle gone bad, served on a soggy roll. Of course, if you want better food, you can always upgrade to first class. They have much better food. I know they do, because since the FAA made the airlines take down all the curtains between first class and cattle class, you can clearly see what they are eating!

The service was good and the flights were great, the plane even had a wing. It might even have had two, but I'm not sure because I could only see this one.  I guess the crappy food was a good trade-off for having such great and smooth flights.

We had to change planes on Oahu. The main city, Honolulu is just like a big city. I guess that's because it IS a big city. To me it seems like a more tropical San Diego (complete with suburbs). I've spent some time here and it's a great place, but I wonder why the airport has very little air conditioning? Maybe the local folks are acclimated to the humidity, but many of the people just passing through looked they were going to pass out.  Still, Oahu is a fantastic vacation destination in it's own right. We wanted something smaller and more remote, so it was on to a smaller plane, destined to a smaller and more remote island. An island that has legislated against development, crowds, and in some cases progress. A place with more wild chickens than people.  Just our kind of place!

I promise you, this was the main road that took us away from the airport.

and led us to this road,

and finally to this spot...

Although we did spent quite a bit of time relaxing on this very spot (the chair is off of our patio), we did some exploring and had some adventures. Photos (better ones) and stories relating to them, will follow...

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